31 August 2011

I have waited patiently all day for one of the websites owned, manned and run by . . . JOURNALISTS to pick this up, but I have yet to see a single word. When I read this late last night I was SHAKING with fury. SURELY one of the sites dedicated to JOURNALISM would be all over this come morning. Nope. Not a word. Unbelievable.

"Since the crash, which resulted in the greatest loss of American life on a single day in the Afghan war, some analysts have questioned why an elite Navy Seals strike team was assigned as mere backup for an Army Ranger raid on an insurgent cell, and why so many Special Operations personnel were aboard a single helicopter. Admiral McRaven dismissed assertions that the most highly trained Navy and Army commando teams should be reserved solely for the most high-profile missions; he said they were regularly assigned to support commanders of units in a local area of combat if that contributed to the overall mission. “We have to be fungible as a force,” Admiral McRaven said. “And if we are not fungible as a force, then we are not of value. It is not unusual at all for SEALs or Rangers or Army Special Operations forces to be part of a quick-reaction force, as in this case.”

Did you get that? SPECOPS have to be . . . fungible. This McRaven fool is the COMMANDER of American Special Operations forces. I guess he missed the subtle meaning behind the word "SPECIAL" in "SPECIAL Forces". Dear God.

See, this is what these slithering degenerate cowards do. They throw out a six dollar word that they know only one tenth of one percent of the people know the meaning of, everyone nods in agreement because they don’t know what the word “fungible" means, and then slick as you like just sweep the entire thing under the rug. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if McRaven himself didn’t know what the word “fungible” meant. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if McRaven thought it had to do with mushrooms.

Here is what “fungible” means.

Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution, such as crude oil, wheat, precious metals or currencies. For example, if someone lends another person a $10 bill, it does not matter if they are given back the same $10 bill or a different one, since currency is fungible.

Are you shaking with fury yet? The commander of U.S. SPECOPS wants to make the special operators he commands LESS SPECIAL. He visualizes a military in which a DEVGRU Navy SEAL could be substituted with a reserve guardsman or vice-versa – because remember, fungibility is all about MUTUAL substitution.

Really Admiral? Really? The 15 DEVGRU SEALs that were killed on that Chinook were literally some of the most valuable tactical human military assets THAT HAVE EVER EXISTED IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY. These DEVGRU men aren’t just SEALs, they are the absolute elite of the elite. Most of them are in their early to mid 30s, and have YEARS of combat experience in the other SEAL Teams before being hand-picked to join DEVGRU. Let’s run it down:

SEAL training is the toughest in the world. The first step for a man who volunteers to enter SEAL training is 4-12 weeks of prep courses followed by 3 weeks of “indoctrination”. Then comes the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) course. By the end of this 25-week course the wash-out rate is over 90 percent. There have been BUD/S courses in which every man washed out. For the very, very few who make it through BUD/S, next comes the 26-week SEAL Qualification Training (SQT). Beyond that, many SEALS also go through the 26-week Special Operations Combat Medic course. After all of that, the SEALs then go through 18 MONTHS of predeployment training. It takes a minimum of 30 months to fully train a SEAL for his first deployment.

Oh, but we’re just getting started. After spending YEARS on the ground in combat, gaining priceless experience on top of their already best-in-the-world training, a very, very select few SEALs are tapped to join DEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group). That is why most DEVGRU guys are over 30. They are highly experienced, stand-out SEALS. How much of a complete bad@$$ do you have to be to stand out . . . in a group of SEALs?

DEVGRU is the best of the best of the best. But even DEVGRU is split into four assault squadrons: Red, Blue, Silver and Gold. The Gold Squadron is the “premier” squadron, in other words, the best of the best of the best of the best of the best. Okay, now try to get your head around how special the men are who stand out not just among other Navy SEALs, but beyond that stand out amongst DEVGRU SEALs. Gold Squadron DEVGRU SEALs make Superman feel insecure.

Guess who was on that Chinook. And entire 15-man troop from Gold Squadron DEVGRU. I kid you not. An entire troop of the most valuable human tactical and combat assets in not just the United States Military, but all militaries across all of the centuries of human civilization and warfare - packed into one National Guard transport helo in a massive, massive breach of dispersion protocol, accompanied by 10 (I think) more SEALs (further compounding the breach of dispersion protocol), the Chinook crew, and SEVEN Afghanis who stood a non-trivial risk of being spies/turncoats/suicide bombers.

Citation (This stuff isn’t hard to find, Journalists. There are even further footnotes at the bottom of the page.):

And this McRaven idiot has the unmitigated gall to come out and spew some line of crap about FUNGIBILITY? We need to treat Gold Squadron DEVGRU SEALs like interchangeable commodity units?

Again, every single human being is infinitely precious, but when we are talking about war, we have to be able to parse the difference in TACTICAL value between different skillsets among our men. This is in no way immoral. From a TACTICAL COMBAT PERSPECTIVE, the notion of applied fungibility is utter and complete lunacy. It is certifiably insane. It is mission-suicidal and borders on being treasonous. Do you hear me, McRaven? Mission-suicidal and borderline treasonous.

“I’m not sure I know how it ends,” [McRaven] said. “This may be the ‘new normal,’ in terms of this threat that we will have to live with for a long time."

Let me tell you “how it ends”, Admiral Pantspisser. It ends in swift, total, complete and unconditional victory. Either get your head around that or resign. We The People are sick and tired of politicking, imbecilic, touchy-feely asses like you using the treasure of this nation as cannon fodder to justify your self-serving politically correct agenda and whose dead bodies you step on to clamber your way up the payscale/pension ladder. the Dear God. Admiral McRaven, you have proven yourself wholly unqualified for your position at best, and a disgrace to the United States Navy and a water-carrying oath-breaker at worst. Men like you make me sick, and make me weep for my country and for the men under your command, the soles of whose boots you are not fit to lick. Hope you enjoy that pension, Billy, because you had to sell out your country and your brothers to get it.

I know both active-duty and veteran military are readers here. What say you all?

30 August 2011

For years, when it comes to police and government surveillance, we've been told "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Curiously, this same statement doesn't seem to carry much weight when turned back on some police departments. Almost like it's a double standard or something.

The officers, of course, claimed qualified immunity, under which an officer acting in good faith is generally immune from prosecution. The legal standard for this is that if a "reasonable" officer would have recognized that his conduct violated someone's Constitutional rights, immunity is lost and the case may proceed. The District court indeed concluded that a reasonable officer should've recognized that arresting Mr. Glik for recording them was a violation of his First Amendment rights, and that, therefor, they had no qualified immunity. The officers appealed, and, today, a three-judge panel affirmed that, yes, they should've known they were trampling Mr. Gilk's constitutional rights, and that they could consequently be sued.

RTWT. There are still some judges out there who know what the Constitution is.

29 August 2011

Looks like my trucker counterparts in Australia are more than a little pissed off with their liberal government as well, which has prompted them and their supporters to go all Road Warrior. What does the Australian media have to say about it? Well, let's just say they'd be right at home here in the USA.

The Convoy organizers staged their entry so carefully, coordinating it with the Federal Police. They meticulously planned everything so as not to put out the average Canberran, even starting at 5.30am so as to avoid the peak hour traffic. They were scrupulously considerate. (Perhaps too much so.)

In the end, the fact that they were so well organized and polite was used against them. The pro-government forces hyped up the anger against the out-of-towners with threats that “it would cause major traffic delays” and “bring Canberra to a standstill”. But when the protest didn’t cause any of the promised disruption, instead of admitting they were wrong, and apologizing, they pretended that the lack of traffic problems shows the Convoy was a fizzer. Spin spin spin. It’s too easy, isn’t it? If the Convoy had slowed up the traffic, it would be called a nuisance.

How do you portray the grassroots movement of cattlemen, miners, truck-drivers, business-people and farmers as being unrepresentative? Just call them all “truckies”. Oh, and ignore the devastating polls that show that this government is one of the most unpopular groups in all Australian history — that indeed 6 out of 10 Australians share similar opinions to the protestors that are being called “extremists”.

This statist bullcrap, with it's accompanying LSM propaganda machine, is worldwide, folks. We all have to do our part to fight it where we live. Here's to the 'Diesel Party!'

I know politics isn’t fair … And I know looking backward doesn’t do much good. (We can’t change the past.) But I gotta tell ya … 2008 still bugs the crap out of me.

And any Republican or Independent out there who won’t support Sarah Palin in 2012 because of her so-called “failed” 2008 VP campaign needs to know the degree to which those failures and perceived “baggage” belong squarely to John McCain and his team.

Blaming Sarah Palin for blowing it in 2008, is like blaming your dog for not meowing loud enough.

RTWT. On this, the 3rd anniversary of Governor Palin's debut on the national stage, I can think of no more fitting tribute to an honorable woman...than the truth.

What's going on here? Why is a company best known for producing electric guitars being raided by armed feds? Is it labor? Illegal aliens? Are they selling raw milk on the side? No, it's about wood. Wood?

RTWT. Yet another in "a long list of abuses and usurpations" by a government far, far out of control. When does it become too much? What's your breaking point?

22 August 2011

While we'll still need petroleum, for a variety of different uses, we'll need so much less of it that we could easily get all we need from our own reserves. If these guys are right, this reactor could well bring us complete energy independence...forever.

17 August 2011

"Each of the students has the opportunity to learn about each respective country, to eat, drink and live the culture," Battin said.

While in Kitsap, club members aim to give the students experiences they wouldn't get at home. That's why they brought them to the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club's shooting range Monday.

"Japan prohibits firearms. It's something they would never get to experience in their own country," Battin said. "In my mind, the reason we're here today is to experience a unique American part of our culture."

Governor Palin has been two steps ahead of the LSM, ten steps ahead of her detractors, and in full control of herself from the beginning. Even those of you who despise her, know in your hearts that she's not an idiot. What we see in this story is behavior that can only be described as petty, vindictive and stupid--three things Governor Palin has proven NOT to be, time and time again. This simply is not who Sarah Palin is. I know it, and y'all know it too.

I say this story is a pack of lies, or at least spun 19 ways from Sunday. I may not know much, but I know bullshit when I smell it.

15 August 2011

'To prevent a catastrophic accident I had no choice but to turn the plane into the jungle. I shut down the systems and I directed the crew to the aft doors – at least they would get home. I looked out of the cockpit window and saw soldiers spilling out of the trucks and jeeps. I can see soldiers are underneath the plane, taking out bayonets and stabbing the fuel cells. I kick the door open and am yelling at them, but they don’t stop, so I jump down. One is just about to stab the fuel cell next to the number two engine, and I go to push him out of there because that’s a valuable commodity, and that’s it… something massive hit me in the side of the head and I lost consciousness.

‘The next thing I remember is waking up in jail – my face was the size of a watermelon; I was just black and blue. I don’t know what they got me with. The dirt cell was like a human pigsty with 35 guys, one toilet and no roof and the hot sun beating down on us. I had no idea how I got there or where I was; none of my crew was there.

‘It was probably a day or two before the guy from the consulate came. He said, basically, you’re screwed – they want $100,000 to let you go. That was hell.’

These guys have balls the size of Pratt & Whitney motors. RTWT--it's a fascinating look at the high end of the repossession industry. A minor episode of 'Shaniqua Theater' pales in comparison to facing down the local banana republic's carbines.

Pre-pubescent boys are widely admired and boy play (‘bache bazi’) is known throughout Afghanistan. A study by the US military found Pashtun men have sex with men and boys, admire males and shun women socially and sexually but reject the homosexual label!

In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually — “because they were not homosexuals.” (they claim they got it by mixing green and black tea!! — and were reinfected as they ignored the medics warning!)

According to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot “love” another man — but that doesn’t mean they can’t use men for “sexual gratification.”

Emphasis is mine. RTWT, unless you've eaten recently. Let me make my feelings on the matter perfectly clear: THE INSTITUTIONALIZED RAPE OF CHILDREN IS NOT A 'CULTURAL DIFFERENCE.' IT IS PURE EVIL STRAIGHT FROM HELL, IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE, AND IT MUST NOT BE SUPPORTED IN ANY WAY BY ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE A CIVILIZED HUMAN BEING.

11 August 2011

4) The BATFE will be disbanded. Field agents will be immediately transferred to Customs and Border Protection and will serve on the U.S. - Mexican border.

5) All stimulus loans to automobile companies or financial institutions will be immediately due and payable. The free market will hereafter be used to regulate business. 'Too big to fail' will no longer be standard operating procedure. Handle your business in compliance with accepted and proven business practices or shut it down.

13) The activities of the Department of Justice will be severely curtailed. Violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights will be the main focus of the agency. Collateral duties will include the prosecution of elected officials who violate ethics laws. The American people will no longer be content with 'censure' of these officials by an ethics commission.

14) Federal firearm laws will be dissected and a complete report will be issued by a bi-partisan commission within six months of my inauguration. Any federal firearm law that infringes on the rights of the individual to provide for their own protection, or the rights of the states, will be deemed null and void. The individual states will left to regulate firearms as they see fit, as long as such regulation does not abrogate the Second Amendment.

19) Lifestyle choices do not fall within the purview of the federal government. States may regulate these issues as they see fit.

20) Prohibition of narcotics and intoxicants are public health issues that fall within the domain of the individual states. Community standards apply in these situations and voters are fully capable of deciding what their desires are. It is not the place of the federal government to question those standards. Federal funds will not be used to finance any activity involving drug use, to include treatment or incarceration. The previously mentioned changes on the borders of this country will go a long way toward preventing the entry of much of the substances we see today.

If you read W&PO, you more than likely read Ann Barnhardt. If you don't, you should start.

Currently, our favorite spitfire is covering the disturbing amount of This Just Don't Add Up surrounding the recent losses sustained by Seal Team 6 in Afghanistan. Go read the last few days' posts, and I guarantee you'll want to ask some hard questions yourself.

Anyway, a couple of lines jumped out at me, and I hereby immortalize them for as long as this blog shall last...

If you aren't suspicious, angry and asking questions, you aren't sentient.

Remember when there used to be a press in this country whose job it was to aggregate information, consult sources, think critically, ask questions, and get to the truth? Now asking questions and not accepting wildly illogical and contradictory statements prima facie is unpatriotic and constitutes mental illness. Welcome to North Korea.

Yeah. It's exactly like that. And it applies to a lot more than just the current issue.

05 August 2011

It's spreading. Ayn Rand appears to have been an atheist prophet(is that possible?).

My dad closed his business after 30 years of operation because of the environmental theocracy. He wasn’t huge-just employed 6 uneducated, otherwise-unskilled workers. He wasn’t polluting – in fact, he was awarded a U.S. patent for a waste-free plating system. But the government bureaucrats need someone to pursue to justify their own existence, and slapped him with a lawsuit demanding mounds of paperwork, fines for not previously keeping paperwork they way they liked (fines: $25k/day by statute), environmental impact statements, etc. He shut down. He now owns nothing. He spends his days plays golf, with his model trains, and with his grandchildren. His only income is now Social Security. His quote: “These government parasites spent years hounding and harassing me. I’ll parasite off them for awhile and see how they like it.”

My parents have owned a small business for 18 years. They have six employees and in that time have always provided health insurance. Until two years ago, they paid 100% of the premium. Then they asked them to contribute 10% of the premium — all but one employee acted like this was hugely unfair. This year, because of the new requirements of the Obamacare bill, premiums went up 600 percent. That’s not a typo — many others in the franchise saw their rates go up even more. My parents could not sustain this and so they dropped coverage and instead contribute $500/month toward the individual health care plan or savings account of the employee’s choice. Then they go home and see themselves villified by politicians who themselves have never had to meet a payroll.

Consider us shrugging. We are closing a 20 year medical practice. Go to the lawyers when you are sick. Have fun. The hardest part is leaving our loyal employees high and dry, but we can’t work anymore in Obama’s medical climate.

And it goes on...and on. RTWT. All you Leftists ask yourselves a question: What will you do when the folks who provide the things you need...all quit? How will you survive when you've strangled the last doctor, dentist and power company?

I know the answer, even if you've never considered the question. You don't care. You hate humanity, and you hate yourselves for being human. You'd rather die than see mankind prosper. That's why you embrace the suicidal insanity of Leftist policies. Your subconcious has followed them to their logical conclusion, and you know, deep down, that what I'm saying is true.

Stop being selfish, bitter little brats and join the rest of us in the world of thinking, reasoning adults. It beats the alternative your psychotic class envy and lust for power is going to lead us to.

04 August 2011

Nearly every modern technology that I marveled at in 1985, which was unattainable to me at the time, I not only eventually had, I don’t even want it anymore. For instance – a rear projection big screen TV. The first time I saw one was in a rich dude’s house. It was other-worldy, the stuff you’d see in the technology section of Playboy magazine, the TV James Caan would own. The price tag was astronomical for a working stiff. Guess what? Within a decade working stiffs had them. I still have one that I can’t wait to get rid of. If I went back in time to tell that to my 1985 self, I’d laugh in my own face.

What makes this possible is RICH PEOPLE. If rich people didn’t exist and have lavish lifestyles and disposable income I would never have owned a big screen TV. They would still be $6000 and sitting in specialty stores waiting to be sold, if they were ever made at all in the first place.

Progressives are too busy with their class envy and hand-wringing to even see how the presence of the rich elevates the standard of living for all, eventually. Having stuff first is their edge, but it eventually gets to even the poorest in America.

You know it's true. Thank heavens for the rich, because they do, indeed, improve the lives of the rest of us. RTWT and all that.

03 August 2011

In saying that I was not claiming violation of our second amendment rights by BoneFish, I am stating that I recognize the fact that my right to keep and bear arms did not follow me into your restuarant. Your right to private property trumps my 2nd amendment right. So, whether or not there’s a sign on the door, I know that while I’m on your property my right to bear arms is subject to your approval. Unfortunately, this is a point that far too many ‘gun advocates’ simply do not grasp.

I used the term ‘politically correct option’, applying it to the decision of the manager, because I do not believe the manager had any motivation other than satisfying one patron at the expense of the another. His choice as to which patron was more socially acceptable was based on his acceptance of decades of politically motivated propaganda, misinformation and frankly, outright lies.

And he doesn’t even realize it.

RTWT. This, my fellow 2A-absolutists, is How It's Done. We love ya, Bubba--In A Totally Non-Gay(NTTAWWT)Way. And you just earned the eighth W&POAward ForExtreme Cleverness. Well done, indeed!

As he dried off, he realized this liquid had restored him to life again.
And his was a rare privilege in a world where gazillions of people did not have what he had.

“I am a rich man,” he said to himself, as he drank another glass of water.

And then he dressed, and drove to the nearby market, where he could have anything he wanted to eat twenty four hours a day, every day of the year.

After he ate his dinner, he undressed, went to bed between clean white sheets, in a warm, dry place - holding hands with a woman he dearly loved and who dearly loved him.
He slept the deep sleep of the tired-but-contented.
He was still there in the morning when he awoke.
Alive.
And still rich.

RTWT. Folks, there are always going to be people who have more than you. Don't envy them--learn from their example how to gain, keep and multiply wealth. There will always be those who have less than you. Don't patronize them--show them how to improve their circumstances.

Just remember...we're all "rich" in the eyes of someone. Even if you're homeless and jobless, if you live in the USA, you aren't doing that bad. Trust me, I know.

Are you starting to understand the scope of what we are talking about now? Obama is going to embezzle considerably more than the entire economic output of Canada, India or Russia to his cronies before the 2012 election -- and that is just counting this round of spending. This doesn't include the other $5 Trillion he has already burned through since 2009.

China is not going to lend us this money because they simply don't have anything close to that much money to lend. This $2 Trillion is going to come from the Federal Reserve. Where is the Federal Reserve going to get $2 Trillion? They are going to print it out of thin air. We are in the midst of the largest currency debasement ever seen in human history. There is only one result that can come of currency debasement: hyperinflation and total economic and societal collapse.

...

The Obama regime is not a failure. The Obama regime is not incompetent. The Obama regime has achieved more in two and a half years than anyone could have possibly foreseen. It has debased the currency by 50% of the GDP and guaranteed that our economy will collapse. It has looted the Treasury for more than the size of a top-ten economy and embezzled that wealth into the hands of their fellow Marxists in preparation for the final collapse of the United States. It has ground the economy of the United States to a screeching halt. It has destabilized the entire Muslim world and ensured that there will be a nuclear war centered around Israel within the decade.

RTWT. Remember that Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

There are fewer undocumented immigrants in California – and the Sacramento region – because many are now finding the American dream south of the border.

"It's now easier to buy homes on credit, find a job and access higher education in Mexico," Sacramento's Mexican consul general, Carlos González Gutiérrez, said Wednesday. "We have become a middle-class country."

Mexico's unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness in the United States.

Actually, this isn't a bad thing. I bear no ill will towards Mexico or her people. If the Mexican people are improving their lot in life and progressing towards a First World standard of living, then God bless 'em. This is not only good for Mexico as a whole, but it's helping solve America's illegal invader issue.

"They're going back home because they can't get medical help or government assistance anymore," Frausto said, "And when it's getting so difficult for them to find a job without proper documentation, it's pushing them away."

Wow, they can't get a job without documentation? Well, fancy that. I bet I couldn't get a job in Mexico without showing papers, either. And just forget government assistance--Mexico is quite clear that immigrants must prove that they will not be a burden on the country, among other stringent conditions. Don't take my word for it--read the Mexican Constitution (pdf warning) for yourself. Life sucks when you have to live by the law, doesn't it?

"He came over with his mom, who was in the process of losing her restaurant job," Barnes said. "It's frightening, especially for the children. They feel this is their country, they don't know anything else, and they find they can't get driver's licenses or jobs."

Well, no...you can't get a license or a job because--no matter how you 'feel' about it--this is NOT your country. If you want this to be your country, and you're willing to work hard, obey the law and become a non-hyphenated American, then head on down to the American Consulate, apply for a visa and come in the front door. I'll welcome you with open arms. But you have no right to be here illegally. Sorry your parents screwed you by choosing to be invaders instead of immigrants, but that's not our problem.

My mother, my father and my stepmother were all born outside the USA. But all of them came here legally. They filled out the forms, they paid the fees, they jumped through the hoops, and both my father and stepmother became citizens(and my stepmother took her Oath in English, not Vietnamese). That we have coddled invaders for so long, is a slap in the faces of my family. That we gave amnesty once, let alone are discussing doing so again, is a travesty of justice.

So, if things are improving in Mexico, and America's finally enforcing her own laws to the point where we end up with fewer invaders, then I can't see that as anything other than a win/win situation for everyone concerned. Since wealth is not a zero-sum game, I'm not threatened by another country doing well, as long as they aren't screwing us in the process. (But until the border crime issue is brought under control, I still say we need a wall...to keep criminals on both sides from easily escaping justice, if nothing else.)

Viva Mexico! May your wayward children return safely, and long may you continue to grow and prosper!

My Blogroll contains some varied stuff, from cats to comedy, but for the most part, it focuses on blogs oriented towards liberty and politics of a decidedly Libertarian/Conservative bent.

And now, I present I Want a New Left. Yes, this man is an admitted and unapologetic Leftist. But, unlike the majority of his cohorts, he's actually sane and rational. His description reads, "Developing and promoting self-critical leftism," and he's serious about it; therefore, I consider his writings a welcome addition to my site as a challenge to our own worldview.

Immersing yourself in only the viewpoints of those who agree with you, results in intellectual atrophy. One need only look at Beltway Insiders or the LameStream Media to see that(or Ivy League campuses, or the DNC, or...). If you aren't just here to throw around sneers and smears, and actually have an intelligent argument, I'm more than willing to engage in debate. So, all my Conservative readers, I encourage you to explore Mr. John Pepple's writings with an open mind.